Pets bring a lot of enjoyment to a family. In many ways, they become an actual member of the family unit. It is widely believed that having a pet enhances the health of members of a family, and perhaps no pet is more widely regarded than the pet dog. Dogs are renown for their love, affection, and loyalty toward their masters. Therefore, keeping a family dog healthy is an important consideration.
Important to a dog's health, in addition to things such as proper nourishment and veterinary care, is the dog's psychological well being. For this reason, playing with a dog is very important to show that the dog is loved and to maintain his psychological health. In addition, the exercise achieved by this play will also help maintain a dog's physical health. Numerous dog toys have been introduced into the market to aid a person in playing with his dog, and perhaps one of the most beloved games of a dog is to play “fetch.”
To this end, various fetch toys have been developed and marketed for use in playing with a pet dog. Moreover, the farther a fetch toy travels, the more and longer enjoyment that both the master and the dog get out of the toy. Furthermore, both dogs and humans enjoy dogs that have outrageous and fun appearances. The human is amused by the dog playing with the humorous toy and shows it by laughing and smiling. This response makes the dog even more delighted because he sees that he has pleased his master. The dog ultimately gets more enjoyment form the outrageous, funny toy.
Oblack, U.S. Pat. No. 6,076,829, issued Jun. 20, 2000 and incorporated herein by reference, discloses a ball throwing apparatus and method. Oblack's device provides a shaft with a half-spherical structure at one end for holding a fetching ball. The shaft allows the user to play fetch with a dog without getting dog slobber on his hands.
Plunk, U.S. Pat. No. 5,560,320, issued Oct. 1, 1996 and incorporated herein by reference, discloses a play and chew toy for dogs. Plunk is representative of one of any number of rope-type chew and throwing toys. These toys may be thrown by the dog owner and retrieved by the dog, and may also be used as a chew toy for dogs. When retrieving items thrown by an owner, many dogs enjoy bringing these toys back in their mouths (retrieving instincts) and often like to hold such items in their mouth for a prolonged period of time (hunting instincts).
Dogtoys.com (www.dogtoys.com/fatcat.html) sells a number of dog toys including fetch toys. Included among these toys is the LIPS FOR DOGS toy. According to the website, the owner can teach a dog to carry the novelty lips around in the dog's mouth so as to provide a comical appearance. However, it does not appear that the toy is intended for the game of fetch, due to the awkwardly large size of the toy, nor does it appear to be readily adaptable to fetch, as the shape does not lend itself to throwing (like a stick) or rolling or bouncing (like a ball). The portion of the apparatus that is intended for the dog to hold in its mouth is a very short “stub” which barely protrudes behind the “lips” of the device, and thus is not conducive to a dog picking it up nor conducive to a dog holding it in its mouth for any period of time.
Novelty items for pets have become popular. Owners like to dress up their pets in costumes, as also provide their pets with various accessory items. Many pet owners believe that the pet enjoys such accessories as much as the owner, as they are an indication of the attention lavished on the pet. The present inventor, in addition to the present invention, has developed and patented the MOODY DOG™ pet mood collar, (U.S. Pat. No. 6,675,744, noted above) which incorporates mood ring elements into a pet collar.
However, there heretofore has not been developed a chew or throw toy for dogs that incorporates such novelty elements in a form that also may be used as a fetching or chewing toy.